When Family Comes to Visit - Day 2

We thought it would fun to head on over to Colossal Cave Mountain Park for some good family fun. All 17 of us headed into the cave for a tour.  We learned all about the Cave's history, crazy legends, and geology like stalactites, stalamites, helictites, and a bunch of other -ites I can't remember how to say.  The kiddos had a great time as did the grown-ups.  When we exited the cave we realized the pouring rain would keep us from exploring the rest of the park so we headed back to the homestead (our home and the neighbors' home).

Since the rain didn't really let up much during the day, after lunch we loaded up the crowded and headed on over to the Children's Museum.  Good times were enjoyed by all the little people!

Have I mentioned that we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE when family comes to visit!  Well, we really do.

the 3 buddies: Tucker, Jared, Daniel at the cave entrance

Aimee, Sara, Uncle Stan in the cave

Interesting little story about the neighbors' home.  Our wonderful neighbors who we very much liked recently moved.  Their home is mostly empty and hasn't sold.  When we realized family was coming to visit, we shyly approached the neighbors and asked if we might 'borrow' their mostly empty home to help host family.  They said of course!!!  They really are so very nice and we will miss them.  Thus is the story of how we were able to accommodate all 17 of us.

When Family Comes to Visit - Day 1

When family comes to town, we really know how to show them a good time!!  What do we do?  We take them to a boy scout troop BBQ?!  Seriously, this food was absolutely fantastic!!!  The dutch oven cobblers were made by Cookie Winfield himself.  YUMMY!!  The meat was slow cooked in a pit for days.  The boy scouts were our waiters and they were great.  It was a wonderful evening of fun, hayrides, 'ranch exploring', good food, lovely entertainment and great company.

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE when family comes to town!!!

Jared, Daniel, and Tucker

Samantha, Mckell, Melece, and her kiddos

Cami and her kiddos (Eve, Samantha, Gwen)

Our FAVORITE Aunt Chris & Uncle Stan

Seriously, I should never be put in charge of picture taking.  Bryan is a much better "memory capture-er"  Oh well, at least we have wonderful memories in our mind's eye.

FYI: the boy scout troop was doing the fundraiser for the upcoming trip to Philmont.  How cool is that!

Mini-road trip

What are the odds that a lovely gal from the Gila Valley (our neck of the woods) goes up to school in UT,  meets a great guy, falls in love, they get married in the Gila Valley and we know the great guy!?!  The great guy is our cousin Ryan!!  The lovely gal is Michelle.  We don't usually have the opportunity to attend many cousins' weddings because of time and distance but we were thrilled to be able to be there for Ryan and Michelle's!!

We got zero pictures of the bride and groom but fortunately our FAVORITE Aunt Chris snapped this little pic of our family at the reception.  I seriously think I should never be put in charge of our camera and picture taking, I always forget to take pics!!

Did I mention the reception decorations were so fun and gorgeous?!  Oh, how I wished I'd taken pictures of them.

Camp out?

Sara really wanted to camp out in the back yard.  She made quite the "tent".  The night was just a little too chilly to camp out, but she sure had fun pretending until bedtime. 

Sara's tent

General Conference

I love, love, love General Conference weekends!!  

They are so fun and spiritually uplifting!!

The kiddos smiling and happy during the 3rd session!

I love that Daniel, Jared, AND Sara will sit, listen, play conference games through all 4 sessions.  I love how they let their creative juices flow and make the weekend fun for all of us.  They truly are amazing children.


*General Conference weekend happens twice a year.  It's a two day weekend filled with the words of the leaders of the LDS church.  To learn more visit http://lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng

April Fools' Day

Cupcakes for dinner?  

Not really but it sure was a fun way to celebrate April Fools Day!

The cupcake was really a mini-meatloaf.  Recipe found here

Sara was so excited!!  She really did believe the cupcakes were real.

The boys were good sports but being the foodies they are, they spotted the difference right away.

Happy April Fools' Day!!!

Show and Tell

Sara was so excited to share Squeakers, the gerbil, with her preschool class. 
She was so grown up about the whole thing.  Cute, cute, cute! 

Sara helped everyone use hand sanitizer to wash their hands.  Then she carefully held Squeakers so each member of the class could pet him.

Everyone was just so taken by Squeakers.  It was absolutely adorable to see their excitement!

Rube Goldberg

Inspired by all the Rube Goldberg contraptions at the OM competition, Daniel decided to build his own.  This contraption is designed to put his marbles in their proper place.  He is currently working on another machine that will enable him turn off the bedroom light without getting out of bed.  Pictures of that machine will be posted as soon as he's done with it. 

I really do love to see the imagination and creativity of our children at work.  It's a beautiful thing!

OM State Competition

This is the first year CWE has had a team advance to the state competition and they did 

G R E A T !!!

The judges were most impressed with how the team worked together.  They kept their cool, they never gave up, they did some quick thinking, exercised great communication and really let their teamwork carry them through.

Way to go OM team!!!  

Don't know why Daniel is upset and he can't remember either

 

cake to celebrate Jackson's birthday

the team receiving their award

Daniel with his 5th place ribbon

The CWE OM team and Coach Stanfill

 Here's the story...
The team had created a slide show as part of their set.  Unfortunately, during their set up when they were connecting the cable for the projector a pin bent.  The cable would not connect properly so they had no slide show.  Regardless of the lack of slide show the team forged ahead.  Next when they were setting up their cruise ship prop, they realized they'd forgotten the chairs that held the ship in place.  The team did some quick thinking and precariously propped up the ship.  The ship wasn't quite steady but the team forged ahead.   They did a little ad libbing when the ship fell mid-performance but they stood it back up and kept going.  The circumstances weren't ideal but the team was quick on their feet and really let their true colors shine through.  The performance part of the competition is timed so the team had to work together quickly to solve their technical challenges while doing their best to keep the performance rolling along AND staying within their allotted time.  They did great!

They also did a great job during the spontaneous portion of the competition.  During spontaneous the team is isolated with just the judges, no audience, no parents, no coach.  It's just the team.  They are given a challenge and they have to work together to come up with a solution.  Again this portion is timed and points are given not only for the solution but for the team work, creativity, and effectiveness.

As a mother, I'm really grateful the judges recognized and rewarded the kids for how well they did in the face of their challenges.   More than anything, I'm so proud of each of the team members.  They had great attitudes and really came together as a team.   

They are amazing children!!!

Puppet Show Fun

I love to see our children's imagination at work!

Each of our children have loved playing with this puppet stage. It was a clearance sale item and it's been the source of many hours of fun.   Talk about a great find!!

Dance Recital

Ballet Belles Dance Recital

So excited for the recital to start

 

 

Sara with her dance certificate

Daddy Daughter Date

Brigham Young University Theatre Ballet Presents

Fairy Tales and Fantasy

getting ready to go

Sara patiently waited for her turn to get a picture with one of the dancers but when the time came, Sara wasn't so sure about it after all.  

Bryan said Sara's favorite part of the evening was being invited on stage to 'dance' with all the other little girls from the audience. 

*more pics to come, as soon as I figure out how to get them off Bryan's phone!*

Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet

Daniel made a F A N T A S T I C cake 

for the cub scout blue and gold banquet.  

Not only did it look great but it tasted good too!!  

End of Day 2

The whole process took him 2 long afternoons of work. The cake is modeled after a Pokémon ball (ball used by the Pokémon character Ash Ketchum).

Great Job Daniel!!!

OM regional compettion

The OM team did a F A N T A S T I C job at regionals!! 

They did so great that they are  

G O I N G   T O  S T A T E!!!!!

Y  A  H  O  O  !!!!

The team waiting for the spontaneous portion of the competition.

Daniel aka Harry Potter with Coach Stanfill

Daniel aka Harry Potter

Daniel and Stevie with their 2nd place trophy!

Bryan and Daniel

OM Dress Rehearsal

Tomorrow's the big day!  The kids have worked their little hearts out.  They've been mentored, they've studied, they've built, they've scripted, they've practiced and now 

 I T ' S   S H O W T I M E!!

Dress Rehearsal in the school library.  Prepping for intro.

double checking the set up

Harry Potter signed up for Peter Pan's Tour

Harry Potter & Santa Claus paying Peter Pan at the close of the tour

GOOD LUCK CWE OM TEAM!!!

**To learn more about Odyssey of the Mind and this year's competition visit http://www.azodyssey.org/

Arizona Odyssey of the Mind Association is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote critical thinking and creative problem solving skills for students from kindergarten through college in a competitive setting.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!

To celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday we enjoyed a yummy dinner of green eggs & ham and truffula fruit (aka mangos & pears).

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!

Snow?!?!?!?!?!?!

What's it doing snowing in February?!  

Oh well, at least the kiddos had a great time playing in the snow before church.

beautiful blanket of snow

I sure hope our little grapefruit tree survives!

Snowball fight?

Sibling love

hard at work

The little ones had long since gone into the house for hot cocoa but Daniel continued on until Mr. Snowman was done.  Way to go Daniel!

Mr. Snowman